http://california.legoland.com/
On May 21 and 22, 73 teams from all over North America including 33 states, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, will descend on LEGOLAND® California for the 2011 North American FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) Open. This high-energy robotics competition is an invitational for champions, runners-up and recommended teams who were true stand-outs in the FLL Body Forward™ Challenge this year. The competition is open to the public on Sunday, May 22 when teams demonstrate their robotics skills in a high-energy, sports-like tournament at the LEGO Showplace Theater from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Body Forward Challenge is a three-part robotics challenge based on real-world scientific issues. In the project phase, teams research a body part, function, or system and create an innovative solution to protect, repair, heal, or improve it. In the robot phase, teams design and build small robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technologies and program them to carry out tasks and complete missions related to some of today’s hottest medical issues, using robotics, sensor technology and ingenuity to solve them. Robot missions in the FLL Challenge range from the familiar including bone repair, rapid blood screening, and pace makers, to the futuristic, such as nerve mapping, bionic eyes, and object control through thought.
The FLL competition is judged on project presentation; robot performance; technical design and programming of the robot; as well as the FLL Core Values: gracious professionalism and teamwork. The highest honor will go to the team that is the most rounded in these areas and best exemplifies the spirit and values of the program. Winning teams in each category will be awarded LEGO trophies created by Master Model Builders at LEGOLAND California.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL) is an international program for 9 to 16 year-old children (9 to 14 in the U.S. and Canada) created in a partnership between FIRST and The LEGO Group in 1998 to get children excited about science and technology – and teach them valuable employment and life skills. Children work alongside adult mentors to design, build, and program autonomous robots and create an innovative solution to a problem as part of their research project. To learn more about FIRST and the Body Forward Challenge, go to www.FIRSTLEGOLeague.org.
LEGOLAND® California is a 128-acre interactive theme park dedicated to families with children between the ages of 2 and 12. With more than 60 rides, shows and attractions, LEGOLAND is geared towards family fun! There are three other LEGOLAND Parks in the world – LEGOLAND Billund in Denmark, LEGOLAND Deutschland near Günzburg, Germany and LEGOLAND Windsor outside of London. The LEGOLAND theme parks are a part of Merlin Entertainments Group, the second largest attractions operator in the world. Merlin Entertainments is the leading name in location based, branded, family entertainment and currently owns more than 74 attractions worldwide serving more than 43 million visitors worldwide. For the most current information, log on to www.LEGOLAND.com or call (760) 918-LEGO.
